The biggest winner here is likely to be Google as it pushes users to sign up to its Google Wallet product, which also lets users shop instore with a swipe of their mobile (like contactless card payment) and make purchases online in the same way as PayPal.

Through Gmail, it places Google Wallet in front of a potential 500m Gmail users. That compares to the biggest online payment processor PayPal, with 161m active registered accounts.

The feature first launched last year in the US with plans for a global roll-out, but the launch is especially timely with the imminent wider launch of Apple Pay on the horizon. The tech giant already has around 800m registered iTunes accounts and the majority of which are connected to credit card information.